Discourse of resistance in contemporary Ukrainian fiction: satire and anti-colonial motives in Maria Miniailo’s Stolen Spring

Abstract

The situation of a full-scale invasion of Ukraine after February 24, 2022 resulted in the emergence of literary works that reflect the forms of literary interpretation of war, its catastrophic consequences and tragic losses. ‘Stolen Spring’ (2022) by Ukrainian writer Maria Miniailo is one of the first novellas in Ukraine that is based on the real situations that reveal the confrontation between Ukrainian people and Russian invaders in 2022 as the result of the full-scale invasion. ‘Stolen Spring’ is an example of a narrative that reveals Berlant’s ideas about the theory of ‘cruel optimism’. It was discussed that the reality of the war became the factor of resistance generating new senses that became a factor in establishing an innovative historical reality in Ukraine. At the same time, it was emphasized that Miniailo’s novella is a form of intensification of Ukrainian resistance to the ideology of new Russian ‘fascism’ (Rasshism) represented in the behaviour of the “katsap” community and portrayed in the concept of the “Russian soul”. The writer resorts to the construction of the world that reinforces the satirical forms through transparent depictions of reality in all its forms in war and terror.